so heres my deal
im a classically trained musician
i love the idea of electronic music
but im new to the mediums
im considering purchasing
as a first piece either
a native instruments machine
or a 404.

Standalone-
machine or 404 ?
and
what was your first piece of electronic gear?

yamaha su10/akai remix 16, in 1996 b.c....

The korg emx was my first piece of gear. I love it

I'd say the 404 is very expressive/arthouse type beat stuff do to the wacky ways you have to come up with to complete your ideas. But on the other hand Maschine is way more capable of doing complex arrangements and heavy mixing and live effects use. My first stand alone piece was the sp-303, but technically a Dell desktop running FL studio

well technically, maschine is not a stand-alone piece of equipment because you need a computer to run it with. And since you're here in the SP-forums, most people will likely to recommend the SP404

my first piece of hardware equipments is a computer with reason 3.0, then I got an SP 404

My first piece was an end to end simple on a CN box car...

But I began making beats on a 303.

I started on Cakewalk 8 and a Korg rack module, then moved on to Acid 2.0, then Reason and Protools, and now I'm strictly hardware (MPC2500/SP-404).

I would recommend an MPC1000 with the JJOS2 operating system.... Excellent OS, logical and precise control over everything, create your own patches, MIDI capabilites through the roof with its great sequencer.

But if you're simply looking to sail the uncharted waters of your creativity, it's the 404 all the way...

sounds like what im looking for.

what made you want to
change to all hardware?

i'm not really sure why... probably because i hate using a mouse to do everything... clicking around pisses me off, especially with that little finger pad on a laptop none of my hardware things have ever crashed either. i've lost ALL of my music SO many times... power outages and stuff.
... and i hate electronic devices telling me what to do. like when the stupid cellphone rings, you have to answer it. I've destroyed four phones by throwing them against the wall or stomping them. if i get a text and i'm texting back and the god damn thing starts rattling while i'm doing it i WILL throw it in the toilet. i hate when i go to a gas station and a guy on the tv screen above the pump tells me good morning.... you talking to ME?!?!?!?!?

sorry back on topic... i love my samplers cuz they are for sampling. you show a laptop to somebody... 'that's a laptop'. show them a 404... 'what the hell is that? HE's got a BOMB!!!' the sp-404 is awesome. you sample it, mutate it, resample... i used to be into video games. the SP is like a video game you make up as you go... it's fully your creation, whatever it is. and throw some batteries in it and and you can go out in the woods and sit under a tree and you've got a portable studio in your hand. if you're into crazy effects and weird little workarounds it never gets boring. if you want to take the traditional music route and also have detailed control over your mix, velocity changes, automation, more song-writing capabilites i'd go for a 1000. they are both da bomb.

btw
this story of "the bomb" happened me 2 or 3 times in 2 airports...

one dude asked me if it was a HAM RADIO wtf

can totally share this feeling, this is the main reason for wanting a single box that does everything from recording to editing to composition. Also having only limited control means you need to let go a little, whereas on the computer you have the idea of controlling/needing to control every thing.

my first piece of kit was/is a 303, and a 404 a few months later, love em both and they're a great couple. the 303 has a nicer sound, the 404 has more power, editing speed and some other extras. What i like about them is that they are not machines, they are human that is to say they have their limitations but they are extremely versatile. It's nice to have a tool that you can just bang on, and it'll give you some ideas in return. With computers the interface gets in the way more than it helps. The sp is so direct you can hardly say it HAS an interface.

Also, if you like the accidental/improvisational aspect of things, the sp is great, because you will likely mess up your previous work whenever you start building new patterns, changing bpms, changing loop points on samples etc. Just play an old pattern and you will find some new and interesting juxtapositions, and then you just go from there. For the linear minded cats thats a downside, to me it's a plus because the coincidences are where i get the best ideas from.

So basically i would say what machine fits you depends on what kind of process you are looking for. Side note, i thought the maschine does not sample/resample, you can only work with what's already in it, but maybe i'm wrong on this.

edit: was wrong, the maschine does have internal resampling

Ive decided I definitely want the 404
as my first piece.
However, local stores carry the 404SX...
this is the same thing with added features right?

if i am correct, the vinyl sim on the original 404 and the 303 has compression under control 1, whereas the vinyl effect on the SX doesn't have this (it has 'frequency range', but i don't find this of much use) - maybe other users can back me up on this... i'm saying this cause that's one thing i miss most on the 404 that makes me run things through the 303 to fatten a sound.
I don't know if thats worth getting an original 404 for, because otherwise i really like the SX.
I have never used a classic 404 though, so maybe others here can tell you about it in more detail.